Distance: 25.2km (541.3km), time spent: 9:57 (270:03).
Altitude (start / end / highest): 900m / 820m / 1081m.
Weather: Light drizzle in the morning, then changing between overcast and nice.
I have slept warm and good in my sleeping bag during the night, but it is a chilly pleasure creeping out of it to prepare and eat breakfast in the morning. Dark and brooding clouds does not make the morning light in the early hours any brighter. It was said it was going to rain in the night, but I had my doubts and thought it would come in the day instead. I was right, the first raindrops are announcing their arrival while I am packing together and leaving Pijae, it is still dark.
Pijae in the morning, still dark and cold. The jeongja I spent the night in to the left and you can discern the backside of the sculpture behind the tree to the right.
I did not have the greatest expectations in store for this day, I walk unnoticed on an unnoticed path through a light drizzle in the beginning. After a while, something that appears like a fortress through the forest awakens my curiosity, I leave the forest and the ridge and are shortly after walking among terraces with grassy domes. It is not a fortress that I am walking on, but a huge cemetery for the city of Taebaek.
A huge cemetery for the city of Taebaek, the graves lies on terraces on the hillside. From inside of the forest it looked like a fortress.
The rain has abandoned me and I trudge on. It is very little out of the ordinary on the walk; the path makes some few frequent trips out to glimpses of farms below the ridge. There are however some local histories concerning the areas the trail goes through here. Geonuiryeong (the hat clothes pass), a slightly unassuming and overgrown pass, got its name after King Gongyang of the Goryeo kingdom was sent in exile to Samcheok and then killed. The king's faithful followers hung their official hats and clothes at the top of the pass when they crossed over, for then to swear an oath to never enter government service again. I am the only one going over the pass now, both my sunhat and clothes stays on while I am continuing further.
View from a peak just before I arrive at Geonuiryeong, with acres and farms below.
After the summit of Pyotdaebong, fences are erected alongside the trail, which leads me to the pass that served nine husbands, Gubusiryeong. The curious name has its origin in the tale of a local woman from a nearby village, who was born under an unlucky star. Nine times she married, and each time the husband died. From the pass fences guides me on towards Deokhangsan (1074m), where the rain makes a little and short encore before the summit. There is however a quite sour and cold wind today.
Geonuiryeong, a modest pass where the path disappeared in the vegetation.
Until now, the walk has not been of the most inspiring sort, but between Deokhangsan and Hwanseonbong (or Jigaksan) the trail is balancing on the edge of the ridge. Trees grows on the edge, so the sight is not all clear, anyway it is an eye-catching view. I peek out to a mountainside that disappears steeply downwards. Far below there is a little road going through a thin valley that meanders its way through the mountains, a few houses lies scattered around the road. I pass a closed off staircase of metal that hides a path down to the Hwanseondonggul-cave, which claims to be the largest show cave in the East. There are, however no forbidden detour down to the cave for me.
A distinct fence marks where the path goes before I arrive at Gubusiryeong.
I eat lunch at the summit of Hwanseonbong (1081m), where a small and fenced in path goes to an outcrop with a revelation of the landscape around. Wind turbines with their rotating blades are standing on the other side of the mountain ridge. The wind has calmed down a little bit when I am eating. I light up my stove to prepare my standard meal (hot noodles with boiled ham and rice), this time I have in all excess a can of beer with me. I am cold when I am continuing walking, it is still not noteworthy hot.
At the summit of Deokhangsan, there are many decorations on the summits in Korea.
Walking above the fields of kimchi at Gwinemigol is enjoyable, I recognize the scenery from the picture in the guidebook, only that the path does not go where I thought it would go. The trail passes past the fields and the wind turbines, and now the clouds are on their separate ways, they are fumbling frantic after each other to no use. A small snake crawls suspiciously in front of me on the path, must not forget to watch my steps.
View from Hwanseonbong.
I had expected an easier day of walking today, the curves on the terrain profile did not swing just as much as usual, but it got heavier than expected. The rain in the morning made the path slippery and more difficult to walk on in several places. Additionally, this has been one of the longer days on the walk so far. A steep turn of a road meets me when I enter out of the trees at Daetjae. The pass consists of several decorations, several monuments in stone, a weird commercial sculpture, info boards with maps and inside a small park there is a locked up sanshingak. Below is Daetjae Hyugeso, I meander down to it.
View over the fields of cabbage at Gwinemigol, a small village that also contains a temple, Deokbulam.
There I am the only guest; I get the second floor that houses the rooms in the minbak all to myself. The best of it all, there are some good armchairs that I know I will be sinking down into during the afternoon and evening. On the first floor, there is a small restaurant and store. In the shelves on one of the walls, there are bottles in different shapes containing various plants in water or some other liquid. The Ryu family, who friendly welcomes me without speaking English, runs the place. I eat dinner in the restaurant, but cannot make myself eat the cluster of the whole and tiny fishes, the particular foreigner that I am.
Walking between the cabbage fields, a lot of kimchi are probably made from the cabbage coming from here.
Later I calmly explore the area, while the hosts are working outside drying roots and bushes. When the darkness sets in, I sit relaxed in one of the comfortably armchairs with a cold beer reading. In between lights from a car is passing by. Not the most exciting day, and with dull weather in the start, but I am strangely satisfied anyway.
Daetjae Hyugeso, my room was in the second floor. The hosts are outside and drying roots and bushes.
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